Prelude to Paradise
by Manectrix
Summary: Months after defeating Grima, Megan receives a mysterious letter from an unknown source. Spoilers listed in the first chapter. Please give constructive criticism.
1. Spoiler Guide

Spoiler Guide:

The only spoilers contained in this fan-fiction are late game spoilers for Fire Emblem Awakening.


	2. Chapter 1

"Hey, wake up honey." I recognized that voice as my wonderful husband Gaius, what was he doing waking me up when I finally have a chance to rest my head? I turned my head slightly to face Gaius, he was holding a letter with a wax seal that I didn't recognize as one from any of the various kingdoms I've visited throughout my time traveling with the Shepherds. The closest thing it looked like was a very stylized "M" plastered between the folds of the envelope.

"Who's it for?" My eyes blinked rapidly, trying to stay awake, "I can go give them the letter then I can sleep."

Gaius laid the envelope on our bed, "It's addressed to you, I found it while I was out patrolling."

My eyes met my husbands', "Was anyone else strange around?"

"No, it seemed to just be laying on the ground, with no trails or footprints to follow," He shook his head, "Frederick's probably going to kill me for bringing this letter to you without him inspecting it first."

I smiled, "He'll have to go through me and Morgan first if that's the case," I said as I removed the seal and took out the paper inside. "Let's see…" I began reading the paper aloud.

"First of all, make sure only the addressed person is reading this with no one else in the room," when I finished, I looked up to see Gaius out of the tent, but I still felt like someone was still in our tent. "Tharja… Get out please."

"As you wish," and she skulked out the tent.

I continued silently reading the letter as I didn't want to risk anyone listening in on what was written, "Dear Megan, I come to you about your dreams, I am the voice in those dreams." For the last few nights I've been having dreams that consistently did not take place in a world similar to my own. Houses were raised along a stone pathway, and in front of every house would be a strange mode of transport. Personally, I thought of them as no-horse steel carriages that came in many colors. Every night, a voice would show a part of this world to me, from the carriages to the comfort of her home. After spending many nights in this world, it occurred to me that even though those were my first time seeing those things, something inside told me I had seen them before.

"You are but an Avatar for me, your name, those dreams, those are all me. I could not have a physical form to communicate with people that I wished to, but I could create an Avatar. If you want proof, need look no further than your special sight that you discovered when you first arrived in this world. The ability to see where enemies were, their stats, and where they might go is all me." Originally, I had thought that my sight came from me being Grima's vessel, as a god would've been able to have my ability. I kept reading, "I want to go a step up, you need to see the worlds that I wish to visit and interact with. Just show this paper to the creature in front of the Outrealm Gate and he'll send you where you need to go."

I chuckled to myself, "How absurd! Even though I might trust a voice in my dreams, that is but a dream. This must be a trick from one of our enemies, maybe the Grimleal isn't as stamped out as we thought." I looked for a signature, but there was none, nothing that could trace the letter to anyone. Realizing Chrom might be worried if such a letter were to exist, I asked Gaius to grab a basic Fire tome from the convoy. Once he came back with the book in hand, I carefully set the letter and envelope alight, and stayed until every piece was charred black.

That night, I wasn't greeted with the usual brightness of the dreams this "voice" would take me to, just an empty black void. Sometimes it would seem various voices would try to talk to me, but they were too quiet and distorted for me to hear exactly what they were saying. I'd hear some words of the conversation, but what were they talking about with a connection or gate? Eventually a clearer voice seemed to talk to the ones I'd been listening to all night, "We'll just try again, if she doesn't heed the letter this time…" but the real world interrupted me.

"Another letter for you came," Gaius laid the envelope and sat on the bed next to me. "Are you sure you don't want me to listen to you read this?"

I sat up and shook my head, and once Gaius was out of the tent I broke the seal, "Ok, what is it going to be this time…" I sighed heavily.

Once the second seal was broken, I read the letter to myself, "Dear Megan, I do not want push to come to shove. Aren't you just north of the Outrealm Gate?" Yeah, we had just defended the village that was near the field I woke up in from Risen. "If you do not come to the Outrealm Gate today like it is your destiny to, we'll have to be more "convincing" in our arguments," we, so this person is not alone. I sighed then continued, "You have until midnight tonight to get to the gate, and do not speak of this letter with anyone."

I hung my head low, a more convincing argument could mean a lot of things. As much as I don't want to, I'll have to go there to keep everyone safe. I notified Chrom about where we were marching to, "I have some business to take care of, something for the good of us all." He accepted my request, and we marched down to the gate. I told the rest to set up camp while I go to the gate, Chrom trusted me enough to go there without backup. The letter from earlier was tucked inside my sorcerers' cloak.

Once I could see the gate, I spotted an odd blue four-legged creature that looked to almost be my height standing at the entrance. I switched the letter for a tome that I called "Giga Drain" and readied my spell hand in case it was an ambush. Slowly I pushed onwards to the gate, with the creature taking notice of my presence by pointing a sword out from one of its legs from me and to the gate. Once I got close enough, it stopped me from going in the gate, and I saw it was holding a piece of paper similar to the letters I had received. It simply read, "Go on in, and experience what I wanted to show you for so long." I gulped, then the creature sheathed its sword and nodded to me. My foot trembled as I stepped into the vortex, and I felt like I was being swallowed, and I got spat out somewhere else.


	3. Chapter 2

Mom went off towards the Outrealm Gate roughly a couple hours ago and she hasn't come back. My dad told me not to worry about her, he was very confident that she would come back. I continued waiting for another hour or two, but something kept nagging at me when I would try to study my books. What was Mom doing? I thought she might have been scouting out the place, but strangely she went alone. On one hand, I'd be disobeying my father if I were to go and see what was going on, but she could have been ambushed and captured based on the time that she's been gone. I decided to shut my book and find Lucina, as there'd be no better person to ask for backup than her. While I walked to her tent, I tried to think of other ways of how my mom must have been held up, but that only made me hurry to Lucina faster.

Once I got to Lucina's tent, I called, "Lucina, are you in here?"

"Just a minute, who is it?" she called back.

"It's Morgan, I need to ask for your help."

The tent's entrance flap was raised with Lucina standing in the entrance, "What is it you need help with?"

"First, let's talk inside your tent, it's something I don't want my Dad to know I'm doing," so Lucina invited me in and I briefed her with what has been happening. "I just don't want to lose my mom again…" I hung my head low when I finished.

"I'll go with you, I understand your pain of losing a parent so I'll help you in any way I can."

So, Lucina and I left camp when it started to get dark and made our way to the gate. It took about an hour, but when we got there we could clearly see a weird creature. The animal looked like it had armor on its head and legs, with the armor on its head being shaped at the edge to be similar to a lance. We were roughly 50 feet from it looking over from the top of a nearby hill. It didn't seem to be threatening, but my mom was nowhere in sight. I told Lucina that we will exercise caution when going up to this thing, but not attack him unless he attacks us first. When we got about 25 feet from the gate the creature locked its vision with us, but still sitting near the gate. Its gaze intimidated me a little, but I needed to find out where my mom went.

We were about to step into the gate's vortex when the creature pulled out a sword similar to his armor in texture and blocked my path. He also gave me a letter which read, "I was ordered to let no one but my master's Avatar pass through. Leave if you do not want to be hurt."

I furrowed my brow as I looked back at the creature, "Who is your master?"

It simply pushed me aside so he could have two free claws to write on some paper, that he held up once he was finished, "Your mom, Morgan."

"But this is the direction she was headed before she disappeared!" I exclaimed to it.

It wrote once more, "If you two do not make yourselves a threat to me, I'll let you sit with me. She will be back by morning. I'd hate to have to harm friends of my master," it glared at me and Lucina.

"How will I know you're not lying?"

"I promise you on my honor as a Samurott, she will come back."

"A what?"

It seemed to scowl as it wrote, "That's my species, I'm a Samurott."

I talked with Lucina for a bit on whether we could trust this "Samurott". We decided that we'd watch from a distance, so it couldn't harm us with his weapons and we couldn't harm it with our melee weapons. After a while it laid down on all fours to go to sleep, even getting his lance-like thing in the dirt. Before long, me and Lucina decided to take watch shifts in case it decided to attack us or my mom came back. Lucina took first watch while I got some good sleep, then we switched after a couple of hours. After an hour or so of sitting and looking at the gate and the Samurott, I heard something coming from the gate. I perked up, maybe this was my mom coming back from somewhere.

It seemed like I was dreaming when I saw my mom. She was excited, not showing any signs that she might've been kidnapped, even hugging the Samurott which woke up and nuzzled her back with its mustache. Until she saw me and Lucina though, "What are you doing here mister?" it's rare when she used that kind of tone with me since I had lost my memory and joined my mom on her quest.

I nudged Lucina awake, "Uh, I was worried about you."

Her eyes looked to Lucina, then me, "Really? Why'd you bring Lucina along?"

"I thought you had been kidnapped, so I asked Lucina to come with me," I figured I might as well answer honestly.

She scanned the hillside, "Anyone else I should know that is in on this?"

Lucina answered for me, "No one else knew about this to my knowledge."

"So…" My eyes went to the Samurott, who was nosing my mom's head, "What is that?"

She pet the Samurott back and said, "In my other life, he was one of many creatures I raised called Pokémon. In fact, I went to the region I was last in, a place called Unova!" Me and Lucina looked at each other, the Outrealm Gates could bring people to other worlds, however that was the least of our worries. "Oh, do you guys want to properly meet this big guy?" She hugged the Samurott.

I asked, worried for us, "Are you sure that thing will not attack you or any of us?"

"Morgan, if he does do that then he will be sent back to where he came from."

"But it had threatened us…"

"That was because this was the first time I realized my true purpose."

Me and Lucina's jaws dropped, "What?"

"I wasn't made as an Avatar of Grima," Lucina shook a little at the mention of Grima, "but an Avatar of a greater power who helped me be the tactical mastermind I am today."

"Ok, have you been hit with one of Tharja's curses because you are really freaking me out here…" with that, her upbeat nature dropped.

"Look guys, you really weren't supposed to see this just yet, there will be a time when I will give you all of the information I have, but I need to keep doing this."

"Doing what? Leaving us for your crazy dream world and some purpose that you wouldn't have taken only a couple of weeks ago for some invisible higher power?" I stood up, "I'm going to go get our healers, they'll know what to do," and so I ran off to camp with Lucina to report back of my mom's crazy adventure.


	4. Chapter 3

"Should I go back to my Poke' Ball Megan?" Jet asked me.

I sighed as I watched Morgan and Lucina disappear over the hill, "No, it's probably best if you stay out here.

We sat and waited at the Outrealm Gate for my companions to come and talk to me about my calling. Jet was afraid that they might hurt me, maybe even kill me for possibly being a witch. I doubted those options, Chrom wouldn't allow it after how much we've been through. Jet suggested bringing the rest of the team here, but that would be too much for my friends. About two hours later, I heard some movement in the distance. Over the hill I recognized Lissa, Sumia, Chrom, and Frederick coming in my direction.

With Frederick on a horse, he got to my location the quickest, "I have been told of this, creature, but I will not let any harm come to you!"

He was preparing an Iron Sword strike while the rest of them caught up, "Frederick, don't do anything just yet, we don't know if this is worth a full confrontation," Chrom told Frederick.

"But that thing right next to her, it could be why Megan is in this state," his gaze turned to Jet's, who glared at him back.

I looked back at Frederick, "He has not hurt me, nor will he hurt any of you."

"But that lance like… thing, could pose a danger to any one of us," Frederick clearly wasn't having any of it.

Chrom interjected, "So, Lissa, Sumia, check Megan to make sure she hasn't been cursed or hurt, or anything for that matter."

Lissa and Sumia checked me over, and later on Tharja came to the Gate and scanned me as well. Despite this through checkup, they weren't able to deduce what exactly was going on. They decided it would be best for Tiki to help try and figure this out as she was basically my counterpart in being Naga's "Avatar".

I looked to Jet, "Could we please take him as well?"

"Absolutely not! We're not taking that risk…" Frederick saw Chrom motion to quit talking.

"How much do you trust this, thing?" Chrom asked, motioning to Jet.

I answered, "He is one of my best friends and companions, even though I just realized our connection last night. I can be held accountable if anyone gets hurt by his claws."

"Oh, does this thing has a name?"

"His name is Jet, Jet the Samurott."

The sun began to rise when Chrom and a small group returned with my mom from the Gate. However, I noticed that they brought the weird mustached-thing as well. It seemed to cling to my mom's side with the same loyalty of a horse or pegasus with a lead, even though he didn't have one much to my displeasure. I followed along and observed the strange looks the group were getting, what with the weird creature following our head tactician and all. My mom and Chrom talked a bit before the group split up.

I followed my mom and the creature to their tent, and just before going inside she said to me, "Stay out here, I want to properly introduce you to Jet," and so she went inside with the creature sitting outside the flap. Moments later Gaius was out and looked as stunned as I was when I first saw the creature. She told him effectively what she had told me the morning I saw her at the Gate.

"So, you're her friend huh?" he looked over the creature, "Seems like you get a lot of work done for her!"

Megan motioned for me to come over, "You two can pet him if you wish, he doesn't bite," and she stepped aside for one of us to pet it.

My dad stepped up first, starting with the face and mustache, then making his way to a little bit of the neck. I could see smiles on both my dad and the Samurott, with the Samurott blinking its eyes like it was going to go to sleep. When he stepped away, I did mostly the same so I wouldn't anger the creature. Its skin was not too furry for the skin but its mustache felt exactly like a horse's mane. After that, my mom told me she had a meeting with Tiki to go to, and so she and the Samurott departed.


	5. Chapter 4

I went to Tiki's tent for a special meeting between her, me, and Chrom about my recent discoveries. Frederick was standing outside, probably because he wanted to make sure Chrom was safe, regardless he lifted the flap for me and Jet to go inside.

Upon entering, I saw Tiki's eyes gaze behind me as she and Chrom were seated on the floor, "What is that thing?"

As I sat down across from them I said, "Nothing to worry about, he was guarding the Outrealm Gate this morning so I could discover my true identity," Jet looked to me as if he was asking if he should leave. My attention returned to Tiki, "Would you be comfortable with him in the meeting?"

"What would he do to help?" and as Tiki spoke Jet began writing on a piece of paper that he pulled from one of his scallop-blades' sheaths.

Jet held the paper up, "I can provide what insight I can give. And don't worry, Megan trained me well so I will not attack you Tiki."

Tiki looked quizzically at me, "He can write and understand human speech?"

"Technically all of the monsters related to him can understand human speech, I guess I must've taught this one how to write in the advent of this situation," I replied.

Chrom changed the subject, so that we could move along, "I was wondering if you could do some sort of thing to sense if she's being controlled by a god or if it's an effect of being Grima's avatar."

"I can provide one insight…" a dark voice uttered behind us.

I turned myself to see who it was and it was Tharja, "How did you get past Frederick?"

"I can warp myself in here no problem, but do you want my knowledge or not?"

Chrom answered for us, "Go ahead, what did you want to tell us?"

"She is not cursed by any sort of puppeteering curse or the like, I've checked multiple times myself," after saying what she came to say, she walked out of the tent.

We waited for Frederick to stop fighting with Tharja as she wasn't supposed to be in the meeting in the first place. Once it died down, Tiki went back to Chrom's original question, "I don't think I'll be able to sense a specific higher power, but I can say that she hasn't had any special aura after we killed Grima." She began praying, I guess to Naga to try to help her sense if there was a special aura inside me. After a few minutes of silence, Tiki remarked, "I sensed a bit of an aura on you, but Naga says that was from you discovering your true self, the one you were meant to be this entire time."

"So, there's nothing dangerous about this aura Megan has?" Chrom interjected. Tiki shook her head no, and both me and Chrom breathed a sigh of relief. He turned his attention to me once again, "What's next now that you've discovered yourself?"

Jet gently poked me with one of his claws, and showed me a paper, "Jet says we will have to stay here and I will keep going into the Outrealm Gate so I can experience new worlds. I think we should let everyone know what I'll be doing and why so no one thinks I'm a witch or something."

"Is there a way we could know of what those worlds are exactly?" Chrom asked.

"I was actually going to continue my journal from where I had left off with details of what I saw, so yeah."

"Got it, I'll go get everyone else. Let's meet by the campfire a little bit later."


	6. Chapter 5

The next time I saw my mom was when Chrom had gathered up all the Shepherds for an update on the current situation regarding Megan. Tiki, Chrom, and Megan stood in front of the campfire while we were behind them in an open space. Of course, that Samurott was by Megan so amongst the crowd, there were whispers about what that creature could be here for. Chrom went on to tell the results of the private meeting they all had, even though it was intruded by Tharja. He noted that The Shepherds' goal of protecting Ylisse from occasional onslaughts of Risen will not change, but they will support Megan in her new-found purpose.

After Chrom finished, Megan introduced her Samurott as Jet. She told us that he is one of many monsters she has befriended in one of the other worlds she's been to. Jet nodded his head then began writing on another piece of paper. Once he was finished he gave the paper to Megan and she read exactly what was written. It said that the other monsters are eager to meet us, and it dropped names like V Serpent, Rocket, and Hydra. I was curious as to what those names belonged to as Megan invited everyone to meet Jet up close. Yet at the same time, I couldn't help but think they were a danger to us.

I shimmied around the people fawning over Jet to my mom, "Are you sure this is going to be fine?"

"What is it Morgan?" she looked at me curiously.

"Well… the monsters, the fact you're going to be away, everything!"

"Morgan, you guys will be fine, and I'll try to limit my time spent in these other worlds so I can come home to my loving family," she hugged me close, "There's nothing I'll miss more than my baby boy while I'm out there."

That night, once I closed my book, I heard my tent's flaps being moved. "Hey, are you going to go to sleep?" my mom had peeked her head in.

I didn't even have my night-clothes on, "Well, I was going to change soon, why?"

"I wanted to tell you what I write in my journal about my trips to these other worlds, would that be ok?"

I nodded, and she ducked her head back outside as I changed. When I finished, I called for her once I was on my bed. She opened the flaps and sat down on my desk chair, turning it to face me. Mom cracked open her journal, which I had flipped through a few times as she wrote about each day she was in the Shepherds, and began reading from it. Once she began, I couldn't believe my ears what I was hearing. She told of her controlling various types of beasts much like the Samurott that came to guard her in this world. Of how it was commonplace for people to capture, own, and fight these creatures for sport. She closed the night saying that she was currently getting her newest monster, a Kyurem named Icyserpent, up to the level of Jet.

The following days, our schedule was relatively the same of wake up, have breakfast, mom would go to the Gate on an adventure, some other boring stuff in between, and when night fell she would tell me of what she has written in her journal. One night she would be guiding a bandicoot through various terrain, and the next a purple dragon. Racing through the craziest tracks trying to get first place with the bandicoot and later a plumber. Then tagging along with that plumber on two adventures in space to rescue a princess. This kind of pattern kept going until the night after she told me about her adventures in a region named Hoenn.

Following that tale, Mom had been on the other side of the Gate for two months. Every now and again I'd get the urge to go in and see what world she went to and where she was. Those ideas were shot down when I remembered that not only does she know the worlds a lot better than I do, but remembering her stories of vicious beasts roaming on the other side. However, in the middle of the third month since she'd been gone, we received a familiar visitor. It was the Samurott we met way back when mom first realized her purpose. He came with a letter for me and Dad and so we read it in his and mom's tent together.


	7. Chapter 6

Dear Gaius and Morgan,

I have not forgotten about you, nor have I been caught up with so much trouble. I hope you can forgive me for going away for so long. The truth of the matter is that I've been working on building a paradise for you guys and every other character that I grow to like on my travels through the different worlds. Tell Chrom and the others that I'm ok so they won't worry.

Anyway, I sent this letter as an invitation for you two to come to this paradise I have built. You don't have to pack anything, just have Jet escort you to the Gate and follow him in. Oh, and tell the others that I will send letters when it's their family's turn to come to the paradise.

-Megan

The next day we did as my mom's letter said, updating everyone on the letter we had gotten and what we were doing that day. All of us were relieved that mom was okay, and we even got a little sendoff from everyone in the Shepherds before we set off for the Gate. When we reached the Gate, Jet jumped in himself. We didn't know whether to trust Jet alone, but a minute later his head poked out of the portal, with a confused expression. Once his head phased back through, my Dad and I jumped into the portal. When we hit the ground, the floor was cold and not even a bit rough like stone or wood floors would be.

We looked up to see my mom, wearing some more casual-looking robes, even if they didn't look like robes at all. She wasn't phased by her appearance though, and said to us, "Welcome to the Gaming Resort, my pride and joy."


End file.
